was by this time gone to roost, he went up to the perch which was behind
the stove, and reached down the cock, and put it under the arm of the
maid, who was just come to call me away.

Not for all the world, however, would I have eaten the cock, but I turned
it out to breed. I went to him once more, and asked whether I should give
thanks to the Lord next Sunday for his recovery; whereupon he answered
that I might do as I pleased in the matter. Hereat I shook my head, and
left the house, resolving to send for him as soon as ever I should hear
that his old Lizzie was from home (for she often went to fetch flax to
spin from the Sheriff). But mark what befell within a few days! We heard
an outcry that old Seden was missing, and that no one could tell what had
become of him. His wife thought he had gone up into the Streckelberg,
whereupon the accursed witch ran howling to our house and asked my
daughter whether she had not seen anything of her goodman, seeing that she
went up the mountain every day. My daughter said she had not; but, woe is
me, she was soon to hear enough of him; for one morning, before sunrise,
as she came down into the wood on her way back from her forbidden digging
after amber, she heard a woodpecker (which no doubt was old Lizzie
herself) crying so dolefully, close beside her, that she went in among the
bushes to see what was the matter. There was the woodpecker sitting on the
ground before a bunch of hair, which was red, and just like what old
Seden's had been, and as soon as it espied her it flew up, with its beak
full of the hair and slipped into a hollow tree. While my daughter still
stood looking at this devil's work, up came old Paasch--who also had heard
the cries of the woodpecker, as he was cutting roofing shingles on the
mountain, with his boy--and was likewise struck with horror when he saw
the hair on the ground. At first they thought a wolf must have eaten him,
and searched all about, but could not find a single bone. On looking up
they fancied they saw something red at the very top of the tree, so they